MayDay
by CosmicKatt
Summary: Jet finds out that behind the flagship of the Core System Guard there are lies, deceit, and betrayal. At the very center is a charismatic, convict.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any characters from the Pitch Black or Riddick universe, nor do I own Vin Diesel. I do own Jet and any characters that do not show up in the said universe. I do not make any money off of this story and I barely make enough money to cover my mortgage so if you sued, you wouldn't get anything but debt. Thank you.

**Reviews:** I would appreciate whatever reviews you may send. I'm a fanfic virgin, so please be nice. Two words: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. Thank you.

**Summary:** Jet finds out that the behind the flagship of the Core System Guard there is lies, deceit, and betrayal. At the very center is a charismatic, convict.

**Mayday**

**By: CosmicGibby**

"Mayday! Mayday! I repeat I am going down!" Jet yelled into her com. "Hydraulics are not responding! Transmitting coordinates now! Mayday!"

The pressure was becoming unbearable and Jet had a few more minutes before she could punch out of her fighter. The fighter slipped into a flat spin making it harder for the seasoned pilot to stabilize. 'Shit, I don't know how I'm going to get out of this alive. Please don't let me die. I'm not ready to die!' The ship was now falling apart around her from the force of ripping through the atmosphere. 'I can't reach it.' She thought to herself, the G-forces of the flat spin keeping her hand from reaching the black and yellow eject lever. Debris from the broken fighter tipped it enough to give just the leverage she needed to reach and jerk the lever out of it's holding position.

The air rushed by her as she flew higher and higher into the sky from the force of the ejection. 'I'm alive!'

"Whooooooohooooooooo! I'm alive!" Jet yelled to no one in particular, maybe to the gods to let them know that their plans of her death had failed. "Hell, yeah!"

The memories of the past week flooded her mind, the time was given to her from floating down with the parachute strapped to her back, which had the decency to deploy.

XZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZXZX

"Sir, Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison. Reporting for duty, Sir." The petite, blonde performed a parade-worthy salute and waited for her commanding officer, Admiral Nick Kammenen to perform his.

"At ease, Lieutenant." Jet relaxed to parade rest, but she kept her eyes on the bump of the paint on the wall. This was her first assignment after graduation and she was determined to not mess it up.

"Do you know why you are here?" The Admiral inquired, staring at some papers on his desk.

"Sir, No. Sir" Came Jet's sharp, trained reply.

"Drop the sir, and drop the bullshit you learned at the Academy, lieutenant. One thing you will learn around here is that the BS they taught you there is not the real Core System Guard. Here you will address me as Nick and in formal situations you may even get the chance to call me Admiral Kammenen. Am I clear?" He informed the confused lieutenant.

"Sir…", He looked hard ate the hesitant woman standing before him. "…Yes, Nick."

"Good. Now take a seat." He replied appeased at her acquiescence.

Jet eased into her chair, unsure of the turn of events. Nothing at the academy trained her for a commanding officer that disregarded basic protocol. Her schooled face hid her feelings of uncertainty behind a mask of passivity. She did wonder why she was here on The Explorer, the ship that did more exploration than any guard ship did guarding the system. Jet read as much literature as she could get here hands on about the ship that she was to be assigned to after graduation, but she couldn't get anything informative. She knew that they were part of the Core System Guard and that most of their missions were classified, other than that her guess was as good as anyone's.

"You are here because: one, the CSG requires that the Explorer take on at least one graduate of the Academy, granted they must meet the requirements…and, second you were the only one that met the requirements. Keep in mind though that you are not wanted here. Most people on this ship have been in the service for at least ten years and will not take kindly to a newly graduated cadet. Especially the enlisted ones."

" I understand, Nick. What I don't understand is…What requirements? I Didn't graduate at the top of my class, in fact I wasn't even in the Top five percent…"

Admiral Kammenen cut off her reply, "My requirements were that I did not want some glasses-wearing, technology infested worm that worried more about the writings of some dead professor instead of escape and evasion tactics, lieutenant. According to your record that I received from the academy, you took on many extracurricular activities that many of the 'smarter' cadets shunned, such as knife throwing and sniping. Plus your security clearance came through like an old man on a diet prune juice." Nick said with hidden amusement, and spoke on. "Technically you are not suppose to report for another 18 hours and I will not put you on my On-Duty Roster until such time. I suggest you make use of those hours to get some rest and acquaint yourself with the Explorer. Marks will show you to your quarters."

As if the aid new exactly when to enter, Marks walked into the room. "This way, Lieutenant." Marks walked right back out with out waiting for a reply. Jet grabbed her bags and rushed after the man that was going to be introducing her to her room for the next few months. She caught up to his pace and shouldered her bag so that she could examine the man without distractions. He wasn't bad looking, just not her type. Marks was a tall, lanky man with reddish-blonde hair and from what Jet could see his eyes were a mixture of green and brown. He interrupted her inspection of him, "To the left is the hangar for smaller ships and fighters and on the right is the large hangar for transports and the like. Watch your step" Jet looked down to see a large coil of wires hidden in a cut-away of the hallway floor.

"Thank you." The blonde woman replied numbly.

"Wouldn't help me to have the newest member…whose not even on duty…get hurt while I was walking her to her room." He chided her as if she were a dumb child.

Jet stopped in her tracks as they came to end of the hallway; through windows as tall and wide as the ship she could see Siala Prime (the main planet in the Core system) in all its splendid glory. Jet watched in fascination as clouds grew and storms dissipated across the dynamic planet; the brilliant blues of the oceans accentuated the green, brown and white landmasses. Marks stopped as he heard a sharp intake of breath from the newbie behind him. He smirked, "The view always gets the new ones attention. Most of the times you just see a lot of black speckled with stars, but since we had to come pick you up we get this view. Look around, you will see that this is the atrium, which also serves as the parade ground. Every level leads to this arena."

Jet looked intensely at her large surroundings, the atrium…arena…whatever Marks called it was huge. It looked as if you post every soldier in here in parade stance and still have room for another unit. Opposite of the viewing windows was were each floor's end; it looked as if from every floor you could see the polished metal floor of the atrium and a grand scale view of the widows. 'I can't wait to see what the view looks like from the top floor, 'Jet thought excitedly to herself.

Marks resumed his nasally narrative of the ship, "This floor is Alpha Level, it houses the bridge, the admirals quarter's, the landing bays and of course the hangars. Beta Level houses the commissary and the Recreational rooms. The Rec. Rooms consist of pool tables, table tennis, courts for all sports, and of course what is affectionately called the "Party Pool", that's the pool for games and such, we have lap pools in the Physical Training facilities. Gamma Level are the bunks and sleeping quarters, which has two floors to it, considering that we have so many people who are stationed here. Delta Level has all the Physical Training facilities and it houses the Medical Bay. Epsilon Level has the agricultural facilities, we grow and maintain all of our food here. Don't worry you won't get duty in there only the enlisted men are required to maintain rounds on the service lists in there. Zeta Level consists of the engine rooms and the molecular power generators. Phi Level consists of our prison and isolation rooms."

Noticing that they use the Greek alphabet of Old Earth, Jet suddenly wondered why it skipped from Zeta to Phi and not just continuing on with the alphabet in normal succession, she posed this question to Marks, whose response was not what she expected.

"Phi signifies the unending eternities, so we thought that it was the best name considering all of the prisoners on this ship are convicts who have been sentenced to life imprisonment." Marks replied with disgust in his voice for the naiveté of Jet's question. "Are you ready to be taken to your room?" He said it more as a statement instead of a question which was emphasized by his brusque manner of walking towards the elevators.

Jet thought to herself and rushed to catch up with him, "Marks." She said hurriedly, he stopped and did an about face barely giving Jet time to stop instead of running him over. "I'm sure your very busy," not wanting to spend anymore time in this condescending man's company she continued on with her proposition. "I don't want to waste anymore of your time, if you just tell me my room number I'd be more than happy to escort myself there."

Marks looked at with uncertainty in his eyes and then realized what she was offering, "Your room is Gamma Level One," He looked down at a piece of paper and continued on, "Number 958." With that explanation he stepped off the elevators and the doors closed. Jet pressed the button that said Gamma Level One and looked at her Chrono. 'I have seventeen hours left before I'm supposed to report for duty, if I sleep for eight of them then I will have time to work out, take a shower, unpack, grab something to eat and still have time to get acquainted with everything on this ship.' Jet calculated to herself.

Getting off the polished elevator Jet looked at the numbers next to the doors and realized that there must be different hallways for each numbered hundred. 'Would it have been so hard for Marks to have been a bit more descriptive about where my room is,' she chastised him to herself. Jet walked towards the end of the hallway that lead to atrium, rounding the corner at the end she realized that she was right about the numbers. She stopped to stare at the beauty of the view and then continued on her way, following the big signs posted above each hallway that read "200", "300", "400".

Jet found the sign that advertised in big, bold numbers the hallway that was to be her home for the next few months. With even numbers on the right and odd numbers on the left, she gained the clues that her room, number 958 was going to be on the right. Stopping at the door that held her nameplate, she realized that Marks never gave her the key to her room. "Dammit!" Jet muttered out loud.

"Can I help you?", Asked a masculine voice, right behind her.

Startled out of muttering curses under her breath, Jet jumped and turned around to look into the chocolate brown eyes of the very attractive man that had asked her a question. "Come again?" she asked embarrassed that someone could overhear her litany of curses.

"Are you new? Can I help you?", He asked again, with a smile on his face.

"Um…I'm not sure…um…How did you know?"

Chocolate eyes cut off her explanation, "It's the bags." He said looking at her military issued travel bags with a glimmer in his eyes, "They gave you away."

Jet looked at her bags, usually able to just look at a situation and assess it, she grinned at her mistake and his explanation. "Actually, yeah. I need to get into my room and the weasel who gave me the 5 cent tour didn't tell me how to get into my room." Jet explained.

"Ah, I see. You must have met Marks. Well, you see this box here," He said pointing to a box on the right hand side of her door. "All you have to do is say your name and rank into the voice-com and your door will open."

"Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison." Jet said firmly into the box. The door slid open revealing a pleasant sized room containing a queen bed, standard issued bed linens, a desk and a door off to her left.

"Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison, eh?" He introduced himself, "My name is Randen, Captain Randen Branners. Most people just call me Randy or Branners. You're welcome to do the same."

"Excuse my manners. Yes that's my name, but mostly my friends call me Jet. I would be pleased if you called me that." Jet explained. "I appreciate your help. It really brightened my day. Thank you."

"No problem, what do you say you and I go on down to the commissary and grab a bite to eat. I was just headed that way and I would appreciate a new face to talk with." Randy said invitingly.

"I'm not sure, I should really get settled…" Protested the blue-eyed girl, adjusting her glasses.

"I won't take no for an answer." He said charmingly, "Plus I know for a fact that they have chocolate cake."

Jet laughed at his persistence, "All right, but there better be chocolate cake. Just let me stow my bags."


	2. Chapter 2

**MayDay**

**Chapter 2**

**By: CosmicGibby**

"So what does a person do for fun around here?" Jet inquired, setting her tray of a turkey sandwich and chocolate cake on the polished, metal table of the commissary.

"Surprisingly there is actually quite a bit to do around here. There's swimming, all manner of sports and teams, plus there's the holographic simulation rooms. Whatever your pleasure, there's something here to please your taste." Randy replied flirtatiously,

before taking a spoonful of his soup.

Embarrassed, Jet looked down at her food before her blush could reach her steel blue eyes. She took her fork and took a bite of her delicious looking chocolate cake, watching him from the tops of her eyes. Swallowing her cake Jet asked conversationally, "What do you do for fun?"

"I like to play around in the holo rooms. My favorite sim is climbing the rock cliffs of Valjo 5. I grew up rock climbing with my dad. We would go out on camping trips and just climb, eat and sleep." Randy explained animatedly. "I've also created a few fight training sims. What about you? I mean what did you do for fun at the Academy? Are they still making cadets go through 'initiation'?" He asked, just as she had taken another bite of heavenly cake. "I'm sorry, bad timing."

Jet grinned, finished chewing and swallowed; she wondered how he knew about 'initiation', Jet realized that he must have been a graduate as well. She looked at his hand and saw his ring on his right ring finger. "What year were you?" She inquired of his graduation date, pointing at his ring.

"Seven years ago." He replied before taking another spoon full of soup. "Now your turn. What did you do for fun at the academy?" He persisted.

Jet studied his eyes and determined that he wouldn't judge her for her more colorful activities. "Let's just say that I had a penchant for choosing the more unorthodox activities." Jet said with finality.

"Oh, come on." Randy complained when he realized that she wasn't going to explain any further. "You can't do that to me it's not fair. You can't dangle a juicy tid-bit of knowledge like that in front of me and not follow through. What are these 'unorthodox activities' that you speak of?" He needled.

"Let's just say that while many of the other cadets were running their brains out or studying I chose to learn how to throw knives, I competed in sniping and hand-to-hand combat. I did pretty well for myself. Don't get me wrong I studied and did the requisite running as well, but I was more interested in learning something new. Unfortunately, because of my extracurricular choices many of the other cadets ostracized me." She said nonchalantly, looking Randy in the eye and daring him to say something. He broke from her gaze to look at the food line, but not before she could see the look of pity in his eyes.

Jet changed the subject to more familiar ground, wanting to dispel the awkward silence that interrupted their conversation. "So…" she began, "What do you do on this rather large luxury vacation vessel?"

Randy looked at her intently just before he burst into laughter, her attempt at humor obviously working. He took big gulps of air to calm himself, "Luxury vacation vessel?" He asked with laughter clinging to his voice.

"Well, you know. We have all these state of the art facilities and for our own personal use. We didn't even have holo rooms at the academy…well just the one, but that was strictly for training purposes. A cadet two years behind me was expelled for using it even though he was just using it to brush up on his escape and evasion tactics. I just find it amazing that we get to use these facilities, just like guests on a luxury System Cruiser."

"I see. I was surprised when I was first stationed here, too." Answering her first question, "I am the Prison Controller. I studied Criminal Corrections and Justice at the Academy. What are you stationed on this luxury vessel for? Will you be lounging by the poolside? Going to the spa? No, no I know. You will be getting spa treatments while sitting by our luxury pool." Randy joked.

For the second time that day Jet blushed, this time she didn't look down. She smiled brightly and laughed deeply, pleased that he had such a quick wit. "Actually, I will be eating chocolate cake in this elegant dining room." She replied continuing the joke while spreading her arms indicating the commissary. "Well, actually I'm not quite sure where I'll be stationed. I'm assuming I'll be working in the Fighter Hangar…I studied to be a Pilot, but my degree says Aerospace Engineering." Jet confided, looking at the salt shakers as if they were the most interesting thing in the universe. "I suspect I'll find out when I report for orders." She added, before eating her last bit of cake.

"What made you decide to become a pilot?" Randy queried.

"Do you want the long or the short version?

"Oh, Long. Most definitely."

Jet looked at him questioningly before launching into her narrative. "When I was a little girl, I think around Five, my parents took me to Siala Three for a couple of weeks. Well, on the Transport ship an attendant asked me if I would like to visit the cockpit. Excitedly I followed her up to the cockpit. When I saw the stars and all the planets surrounded by the blackness of space I just stood there reverently. The captain let me fly the transport and I remember thinking that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to have that pin sitting on my uniform. I wanted to move about the universe without any restrictions, I wanted to see a star and travel there..." Slipping out of her reverie, Jet finished her story, embarrassed that she had divulged such a childish, yet precious story from her past. She wanted to get away, be alone for awhile. "You know, I have to do some things before I report for duty." Jet stood up abruptly and picked up her tray of now empty dishes and walked away without a reply; leaving him there to stare after her in dismay and confusion.

Jet walked onto the elevator and pressed the button to close the doors, hoping that they'd close before Randy caught up to her. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid.' She thought to herdelf. Jet wasn't comfortable talking about her past and couldn't believe that she had revealed such a deep look into her past to someone she had only just met. The doors opened and Jet walked off the elevator, she looked up and saw Randy walking straight towards her with determination in his step.

"What the hell was that? Did I say something wrong? The last thing I remember is your recalling a pleasant memory and then you just up and leave without so much as an explanation." He asked harshly.

She was unable to believe that he had reached Gamma Level before she did, "What? How in the Hell? How did you get up here before I did?" Jet yelled at him in disbelief.

He replied authoritatively. "What are you going on about? This is the Beta Level…"

Jet interrupted his explanation, "No, no, No! I got on the elevator, I pressed the close button and…" she stopped suddenly realizing her mistake.

"And?"

"And in my haste I forgot to push the button for Gamma Level." She said in defeat. "Look, I'm sorry. I…I…At the Academy no one was as nice to me as you have been and I'm just not use to sharing things about my past to anyone." Jet looked up to his eyes during her apology and saw amusement and understanding in those chocolate brown eyes. "What's so funny?" She asked defensively

"Nothing, just your explanation about why you ended up on this floor and not the barracks." He replied, trying to control the laughter that was breaking through his voice. He stared at her eyes and then they both erupted in laughter realizing the humur of her mistake.

Both of them smiling and half-way giggling walked onto the still open elevator and Randy pressed the button for Gamma Level 1. She looked at the polished metal walls of the barracks and wondered why she hadn't seen many people. Sure the commissary had been rather empty, but it's not as if it was around the usual eating. She had just been expecting to see more people in the halls.

"Hey! Randy! Whose the bitch?" Jet cringed at the derogatory term. Randy and Jet stopped and turned in their tracks to look at a tall man with wide shoulders. To Jet he looked as thick as the elephants of Old Earth. He wasn't fat, he was just large. Large with muscle.

"Lutar, this Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison. She's just graduated from the Acad…" Randy's explanation trailed off as Jet briskly walked away from the obvious friends, leaving Randy, for the second time that day to stare at her back in disbelief. Quickly recovering from his shocked stupor, he ran after her saying in annoyance, "You know this is getting on my nerves."

"Your nerves? Your nerves? I didn't go through four years at the Academy to be called a bitch. I went through my time of derogatory terms. I have insignia that demand respect and such, he…" she said pointing to the other man, "is an officer in the Core System Guard and it is expected of him to treat another officer with said respect." She told Randy offensively, looking at the other man with steel in her eyes folding her arms.

"I don't mean nuthin' by it." Apologized the big man sincerely, scuffing his shoes on the spotless, metal floors of the barracks. Jet looked hard into his green eyes and decided to not hold it against the man, he looked like a man who is just rough around the edges.

Jet put on a sincere smile and said, "Apology accepted Commander…?" She held out her hand in hopes that a handshake my signify peace.

He smiled at the mesmerizing girl, taking her hint he shook her hand and answered, "Lutar. Lutar Jenis. Your name is Jethenna?"

"Jet. Everyone calls me Jet." The pretty blonde explained.

"I really am sorry about my mistake, ma'am. Sometimes I just talk without thinking, tends to get me inta lots of trouble." He apologized again, running his hand through his curly red mane. "Whaddya say we all go down to the commissary for some chocolate cake." Randy and Jet looked at each other with a knowing glance and laughed at his friendly suggestion. "What? What I say?" he asked, wondering what it was he'd done this time. He thought to himself, 'At least she's laughin' and not yellin'. Damn, she's got some spirit.'

"Sorry man, I've already introduced Jet to the Chocolate Cake." Randy answered Lutar's question.

"I really would like to get some more chocolate cake, it was so good." She reassured the red-haired lion. "But I've still got time-lag and I would really like to get some rest before I'm expected to report for duty." She informed them.

"Wait," Randy stopped her before she could walk off, "Do you…you…uh…youwannagorockclimbingwifmes'time?" He said bunch his words nervously together.

"Come again?" questioned Jet, successfully hiding her amusement at his predicament.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go rock climbing with me sometime." He asked again enunciating every word with perfect clarity. "You know in one of the holo rooms."

Jet looked into Randy's distressed eyes and said soothingly, "I'd really like that." She then turned and walked towards her room. Jet stopped in her tracks remembering Randy's question from lunch and said, "Randy! Yes."

"Yes, what?" he asked confused at her statement.

"Yes, they still make cadets go through initiation." With that explanation, Jet turned back to her room.

Randy smiled to himself, pleased that she had remembered his question. For the first time since coming to the Explorer Randy thought about the Academy and wondered what it would have like to attend with a


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **Apparently I need to make one of these for every chapter. So anywho…I do not own Riddick nor the Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick Universe. Please don't sue, it won't do you any good.

**MayDay**

**Chapter 3**

**By: CosmicGibby**

Jet walked out of the Admiral's Office with a grin on her face and orders in her hands. She was so excited looking at her papers and walking towards the hangar that housed the fighters, she almost missed the unkempt looking man walking towards her. To be more exact to the Admiral's Office. Jet took note that he was not wearing a CSG uniform, he looked ragtag in his brown pants, grey shirt, and faded blue vest; the whole outfit looked as if it had seen better days. On his waist he wore a utility belt containing an asp, handcuffs, and a gun. She dismissed this from her mind as soon as she realized she might be late for meeting her Commanding Officer.

Jet apprehensively stopped outside the door of the Fighter's hangar and took a deep breath before she walked in. Immediately looking at her new surroundings she felt at home; in neat and exact rows she saw the fighters.

"Lieutenant!" Jet jumped at the sound of her rank. She turned and saw the man who had yelled at her, quickly noting his insignia and nameplate she returned the greeting.

"Commander Fiarand, sir. Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison reporting for duty, sir." She said as she handed the Commander her papers.

"Follow me Lieutenant." He grabbed her orders, turned and walked to his office. "Great another hotshot pilot who doesn't even know how things are done." She heard him mutter under his breath. Jet was surprised by her commander's feelings; she had expected hostility from her peers, not from her commanding officer. 'I guess I'll just have to prove my worth by my actions,' she thought decisively to herself. 'I'm up for the challenge!'

Jet looked at his desk and saw a picture of a young girl, she guessed the girl was around the age of ten. The bright smile on the young girls face cheered her heart. "Is this your daughter, sir?" She tentatively asked her commander, pointing to the picture.

Commander Fiarand picked up the picture and looked at it lovingly. "Yes, her mother died when she was born."

"How old is she, sir?"

"Kate just turned 9 a couple of weeks ago." He responded to her question, setting the picture back down on his desk adjusting it so it sat 'just so'. "Now, lieutenant you will be assigned to Sininen Squadron. We just had an opening in that squadron and Lieutenant Dami needs someone to fly wing. Are we clear?"

"Sir. Yes, Sir." Jet replied automatically to his question.

"Jarrison, you don't need to and aren't expected to respond with strict protocol here on the Explorer. I'm sure Kammenen explained how the Explorer works in his introduction." Commander Fiarand smiled, more to himself than to Jet. "He has the same speech for each new person stationed here. Let's go back to the hangar and I'll show you the bird you'll be flying."

They stepped out into the hangar; Commander Fiarand walked Jet down one of the aisles and stepped in front of a fighter that looked as if it had been through a war and then crashed.

"Here she is. I know she doesn't look like much right now, but after you fix her up, I have confidence that she'll fly good as new." Fiarand paused before he walked off, "Oh, and Jarrison. That bird needs to be flight ready in 5 cycles."

Jet's resolve to make nice with this man ended with his proclamation about her fighter. 'Well, at least I won't let my education go to waste.' Jet thought to herself with disgust. She looked down at her uniform and realized she was going to need to change from her Class A's into her coverall's. She looked around and realized that she was being silently watched by the other pilots and mechanics. Jet turned to leave and saw a tanned woman with bright eyes walking towards her.

"You Lieutenant Jarrison? I'm Lieutenant Rayankka Dami." Said the woman, holding her hand out.

Jet shook the woman's hand, "Guilty." She replied. "I'm your new wingman. Where's your fighter, Lieutenant Dami?" Jet inquired wanting to know if she was getting a shit-deal with her assigned fighter.

"Mine's across from your's." Lieutenant Dami explained, pointing to the fighter that sat directly across the row from Jet's. "Oh and by the way, call me Rayan. No one here is strict with protocol."

Jet nodded her head in acquiescence, still staring in disbelief at the gorgeous stat the Rayan's fighter was in. "Your fighter looks brand new. How often do they upgrade them?" Jet asked, letting curiosity get the better of her.

Rayan smiled, "You want to know about the state of your fighter don't you. Well the pilot before you died in a dog-fight over the Xanat moon. We salvaged the bird. Don't worry we all started out with fighters that were...for lack of a better word...fucked. Your welcome to fix it up as you see fit. In fact those are your orders, even if the Commander didn't tell you that directly. All of the parts and tools you could ever need are stored in the tool shop back there." Rayan pointed down the row of fighters to two large doors that had a sign labled "TOOL SHOP" above them. "I'd change if I were you. You don't want to mess up your Class A's, but your gonna want to hurry because you've only got 5 cycles before you and I are out on patrol together and I want to know that my wingman has got a safe fighter. If you need any help just let me know." Rayan offered before she walked back to her fighter.

Jet Looked around at the other fighters and noticed that no two fighters were exactly alike, but in their own way they all looked lethal. 'I hope I'm allowed to make whatever modifications I see fit...I've got some ideas that will speed this baby up.' Jet slapped the side of her new fighter only to have the fighter's sensor unit fall to the polished surface of the floor. 'This thing is gonna need a full overhaul.' She thought to herself, resigned.

Jet walked out of the hangar and turned toward the elevators that would take her to Gamma level when she stopped in her tracks because she heard yelling coming from the Admiral's Office behind her. Normally Jet wouldn't have cared about yelling coming out of the Admiral's Office, because at the Academy she was use to hearing Cadet's get their ass chewed out by a superior officer; it was the words that were accompanied by the angry voice that made her stop.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT WERE ONLY RECEIVING FORTY-PERCENT? THE NEGOTIATED PAYMENT WAS SEVENTY PERCENT!" Came the angry Admiral's voice. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL! THE DEAL IS OFF! HE STAYS HERE!"

Jet looked through the cracked door of the Admiral's Office, she saw the admiral and the man that he was yelling at, the man she had passed in the hall. 'That's a Merc! What the hell is a Merc doing here?' Jet thought to herself. 'What does he mean by negotiated price? The Core System Government strictly forbids dealing with Mercs.' Jet hurried away from the door of the Admiral's office not wanting to get caught eavesdropping on what was apparently a conversation that should have never been taking place. 'What secrets is this secret facility hiding?'

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The overhaul of her fucked-up-beyond-all-recognition fighter was coming along smoothly, by Jet's calculations she was a day ahead of schedule. With Rayan's help and assistance they were able to rewire the motherboard and replace all the wires on the fighter. Rayan really knew her technology and helped Jet to improve on some of her own ideas. 'I gotta hand it to her, she knows her shit!' Jet thought to herself, after Rayan had suggested that they reroute the cooling and heating filament through the floor of the fighter to help save on energy, thus being able to greatly increase the speed of the engines.

Jet grabbed the welding torch that was lying next to her and snapped her mask into place. Sparks flew off of the now warmed metal as it melded into the old metal covering a hole that was detrimental to the integrity of the hull. Jet shut off the torch as she saw a pair of booted feet walk towards her fighter and stop right by her own feet that were sticking out from under her ship. Jet slid out on the roller-board and looked up into one very beaten face, surrounding two chocolate-brown eyes.

"Don't tell me you fell down the stairs!" She said, standing, removing her mask and assessing the damage on his face. "Or, was it that you ran into a door?"

"Hey, Jet." Randy said smiling and then wincing at the pain a smile cost him.

"Are you okay? That looks pretty bad." She asked, concerned.

"Aww, it's nothing compared to the number that I did on the other guy. Sorry babe, doc says I can't do anything strenuous for the next couple of cycles." He said suggestively, making Jet blush. "Hey I was wondering if you might be able to go the commissary with me for a bite to eat? They have chocolate cake, I checked."

Jet smiled at his suggestion of chocolate cake, "I…I really can't." she said apologetically, "I've only got three more cycles before this bird has to be flight ready, besides I've got my wing leader helping me out and I wouldn't feel right about abandoning her." She watched his face fall at her refusal.

"Hey, Hey, Hey…HEY!" They both turned to see Rayan sticking her head out of an absurd hole in the fighter where there should have just been smooth tempered metal. "I will not be having you blame me when you faint on me for your nutrition. Or lack thereof, for that matter." She protested with a smile on her face. Rayan looked at Randy's uniform assessing him. "Captain Branners" She climbed out of the hole, "If you will give this young woman a few moments with me she will be ready for lunch. You just make sure she eats a balanced meal, you hear?"

Randy nodded and smiled, "Yes, ma'am."

Rayan grabbed Jet's arm and drug her behind the half-finished fighter, "Are you crazy? Do you have one too many bolts loose in that genius brain of yours? What do you mean by turning him down for a lunch invite? Have you not seen that ass?" Rayan whispered, berating her new friend.

Jet tried to put up a protest, "Rayan, come on he's just being friendly, you know with me being the new person and all. Besides I've got a lot to get done if I am to have my fighter ready for patrol."

"Honey that ain't the Welcome Wagon, if it is they missed me. Besides girl, you have got to eat something. When I go on break I am not going to bring you some food so you can ditch Captain Gorgeous over there." Rayan said, pointing to the door of the hangar where Randy was standing.

"Rayan, I can't. Have you taken a good look at me?" Jet complained. "I'm still in my coverall's and I've got grease and dust smeared all over me."

"Girl, I swear you are the most agrivating woman I have ever met. He likes you I can see it. Those coveralls look damn good on you too. Now go before I drag you to the commissary myself." Rayan insisted, shooing Jet to the doors

Jet laughed at her enthusiasm.

Jet and Randy walked through the doors of the commissary and stood in line with thier trays. Jet looked around and was surprised at the amount of people the commissary could hold. It looked as if every table was full. 'I wonder if we'll be able to find a place to sit once we get our food.' She thought to herself and voiced her concern to Randy.

"We'll be fine. This is just the lunch rush. I've never had an issue with finding a place to eat." He assured her.

"What are you going to get?" she inquired of his lunch selection.

"I was feeling like getting a burger and some fries. You?" he said, returning her question.

"I wasn't sure, but now that you mention it I want the same and chocolate cake." She smiled at him and pointed to a table, she said. "I think I see an empty table over there." She grabbed her chocolate cake and headed in that direction. She took a seat at the table and pooped a french fry in her mouth. "Owww, hot, hot!" She picked up her napkin and spat the offending french fry into it, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Randy looked at her with a huge grin on his face and amusement in his eyes; a deep rumble of laughter started in his chest and he grimaced in pain. "Got to remember that I cracked a few ribs." he said more to himself, than to her.

"Yeah, about that..." Jet said with caring in her eyes, "What happened to you?"

"We thought we were getting rid of a prisoner that we have in one of the isolation rooms up on Phi level. Well, we had him chained up for the animal that he is and we were taking him out of the isolation room and all of sudden his animal explodes. I didn't get the worst of it. A couple of my enlisted men landed in the med bay with concussions and one slipped into a coma." he explained, his voice laced with concern, then switched to disgust. "This one is pure animal. I came out lucky I got a few bruises, two cracked ribs, and a broken nose."

"I'm so sorry. I forgot that you worked on the prison level. So did you and your men...uh... "get rid" of him?"

"We weren't going to kill. He was just getting transported out of here. We were able to subdue him enough to stick him back into his isolation room, but then were stuck with getting him back out again. Well, before we tried it again I received a call on my comlink to let me know that our orders had changed and he was staying on The Explorer after all." Randy continued on, "Frankly, I'm surprised. We recieved orders a month ago that he was leaving and then they were changed so quickly. I don't get it."

What's his name?" Jet asked, interested that this one prisoner had exercised so much power over Randy and his men.

"Riddick. Richard B. Riddick." Randy replied, his voice dripping with disdain.

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Hope you all enjoyed it. I am so sorry it took so long. Please forgive my tardiness. Thank you so much to my Readers and my Reviewers.

**Wolven Jedi: **Thank you so much for your support. I promise that you'll find out what the initiation is!

**Amita4ever:** Thank you for your critique and you were totally right. I hope you can see the beginning of the plot in this chapter. Am I rushing things?

Everyone please review I totally need all the help that I can get.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of the Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick Universe, although I wouldn't mind owning Riddick. I do not make any money this is purely or my own gratification and joy, and also for the gratification my readers all two of them.

**MayDay**

**Chapter 4**

**By: CosmicGibby**

"Who?" Jet asked

"Riddick. He's a killer, a beast. He's the most wanted man in Company territory." Randy explained further, "He's a Company Ranger who abandoned his post and turned serial killer. Riddick's escaped from a few maximum hold facilities."

"Where was he supposed to go? Who was taking him there? Why is he on The Explorer anyway?" Jet fired her questions at Randy as they formed in her head. "The Company must be shittin' in their pants that we have him and they don't." Jet took a couple of fries and shoved them in her mouth, moaning in ecstasy at the taste.

Randy looked at her with bewilderment in his eyes realizing how innocent this spunky, blonde must be. He shifted in his chair trying to get more comfortable and tried to focus on her questions. "Well…uh…yeah, the…uh Company is really mad and…um…I think he was being transported to uh…actually I'm not sure where." Randy looked away from the woman with grease smeared tantalizingly across the bridge of her nose and onto her left cheek, he was able to gain control of his words and his thoughts. "We weren't told where he was going we were just ordered to get him ready for transport. I think someone was picking him up. Did I answer all of your questions?" Randy looked at her face.

"I think you missed the one about why he was on The Explorer in the first place." She said.

"Ah, well, now that would be the interesting story. If I remember correctly he was being shipped on a transport shuttle. He killed the crew and took over the transport as soon as he slipped into our space we sent out a couple of fighters to take his ass down. When he slipped into our space he didn't ask for clearance and…"

"And it's our policy to shoot down anyone who doesn't have clearance." Jet finished. "Go on."

"A couple of our fighter's chased him into the atmosphere of one of the moons of Siala 5and shot his transport down. They chased him on the surface of the moon, but by then it was too late. He had already high tailed it into one of the fighters that was left by the pilots chasing him. He used the guns to kill two pilots while they were on the moon's surface and injured another who died in the infirmary. He blew up two grounded fighters the fourth pilot was able to lift off the ground before they were destroyed as well. There was a dogfight in the air, but in the end our pilot shot him down. In fact I think the fighter Riddick Hi-jacked is the one…you've been…assigned." Randy finished and looked searchingly into Jet's face for any sign of emotion. What he saw was puzzling; for the briefest second he saw amusement then he saw face become a blank look of passivity. If he hadn't been looking he would have missed her look of amusement.

"That is quite a story. It definitely explains why my fighter looks like it should have died in a war. My only question is how did he know how to pilot our fighters? I mean even if he has credentials as a pilot, the CSG fighters are completely different than anything the Company has ever produced." Jet explained, "Believe me, I know. We studied Company Engineering in a couple of my classes." Jet took her last bite of cake and licked the frosting off of her fork.

"You know I've never thought about that." Randy said realizing that maybe there might be more to this Riddick than just pure animal.

"Hey, Randy." Jet interrupted his thoughts, jolting Randy back to the present. "This was a real nice treat, but…ah…I got to get back to the fighter hangar. I need to finish fixing up my fighter. I'd like to do this again sometime; you know when things settle down?"

"Oh yeah, I totally understand. Maybe when I heal up I can take you rock climbing. Whaddya say?" Randy asked eagerly.

"That would be great." Jet stood up and picked up her tray. "Would you like me to get your tray for you?" She asked concerned.

"Hey there Jet!" Randy and Jet turned to look at the face of Lutar with a tray loaded down with two burgers, a plate of fries, a large water and two pieces of chocolate cake. "I missed eating with you two?" He asked disheartened.

"Hi, Lutar. How about next time Randy and I meet up for lunch we give you a call on your com. That be all right? I'm real busy what with fixing up my fighter and all. I need to get back and finish up for the day. I'll talk to you both later." Jet turned and walked away to turn in her now empty tray.

"Randy, you staying for a while?" Lutar asked looking at his friend's eyes follow the backside of the young lieutenant that just left.

"Yeah, sure man." Was the reply from an obviously occupied Randy.

Lutar grabbed Jet's vacant chair and sat down. "Hello? Report in Randy." Lutar joked waving his hand wildly in Randy's face.

Out of instinct Randy stated, "Captain Randen Branners reporting in." Snapped his face to attention, and cringed in pain. "Ow! Man that hurt! Have you no respect for the crippled?"

Lutar laughed out loud causing more than few people to turn their attention to see what was so funny. "Man, you should have seen your face. You went straight from far away and dreamy to worried that your superior officer might catch you doing something you're not supposed to. How many times have I told you Randy. Don't. Wear. Your. Thoughts. On. Your. Face! Your opponent will use that against you man. It's a weakness and they will exploit it."

"I know. I know. I was just thinking about…"

Lutar interrupted, "You were thinking about a certain blonde who likes this here's commissary's chocolate cake. Am I right?" He said, nudging Randy causing his face to flood with embarrassment.

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"Rayan are you sure? What do you mean we can't fix it?" Jet asked incredulously.

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. That piece of shit is broke." Rayan pointed to Jet's fighter and took a breath, "Sometimes a thing gets broke and can't be fixed."

"Well, what about the spare parts. I was told there was plenty of everything, why don't we just replace it?" Jet offered.

"No honey, that's not what I meant. The mother board, it's code has been completely re-written. It's in a code that I ain't ever seen before."

"You shittin' me?" Rayan somberly shook her head in response to Jet's question, Jet continued on. "You're freaking out over a mother board? We can just replace the motherboard and then we'll be back in business."

The shaking of Rayan's head became more frantic, "Jet honey, on any other fighter with any other motherboard I would have agreed with you. Honestly I would have had it done before you came back from lunch, but with this new code it's re-written all of the systems. Basically it's made your fighter a little row boat without the rows."

"Well then let's replace all of the systems. It might take a little bit more time, but we can do it." Jet said emphatically. "No. What do you mean no?" Jet said as she saw Rayan shake her head in protest.

"Jet what I mean by no, is that I replaced a couple of the systems and as soon as I did the screwy code messed with it and rewrote the code on the newly installed system. I know what your thinking and I'm telling you it won't work." Rayan explained emphatically.

"Okay, 'Seer', what was I thinking?" Jet said with amusement

"Girl, your thinking if we tear out all of the systems at once and then hook upnew ones, we'll have gotten rid of the damned code." Rayan said confidently.

"Why won't that work? It's a great plan and totally out of the box!" Jet rationalized her idea.

"Jet, I get the feeling that the fucker who rewrote this code knew exactly what they were doing. This bird is never going to fly again, not unless who have some magical way of procuring an answer to breaking that code." Rayan said defeated. "This fucker knew just how to cripple your bird and make sure it would never fly again. We gotta tell Fiarand and ask him for another fighter."

Jet's head whipped up from inspecting a freshly covered hole. "No! No way! No the fuck way!" Jet stated with surprise and finality, then continued. "You go on ahead to lunch. You need a break. I'll take a look over everything so I can talk to Fiarand. Who knows, maybe he'll extend my due date!" She said softly with no hope in her voice.

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'Rayan was right. I've run every diagnostic; this thing is dead.' Jet hooked up her Personal Computing Console to the fighter's mainframe. "Oh! Fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole! Damn you!" She yelled.

"Is that really conduct becoming an Officer of the CSG?" Behind her came the voice of Commander Fiarand.

Jet jumped at his voice and turned around in an about-face; she saw her Commander and Rayan, their faces lit with amusement. Rayan looked as if she was losing a battle with her laughter.

"I…I'm ssor…sorry, sir." Jet stammered. Rayan burst into laughter, clutching her sides.

"Lieutenant, what was the need for such coarse language?" He questioned with a hint of laughter in his voice, "and what's this I hear from Rayan that your fighter will never fly again?" he asked pionting to her fighter.

"Well, actually sir I can answer both of those for you. There's a code that's imbedded into the systems of the fighter, not just the key systems, but all of them. It's unlike any code I've ever seen before and quite frankly I don't believe I can fix it. It's like a computer virus if I remove one system and replace it with a brand new one, the new system gets re-written by the code hidden in the other systems." Jet explained, pointing to her Personal Computing Console and showed them the code as it ran accross the viewing screen. "Look at my PCC, I hooked it up to the mainframe of my fighter to run some of my own diagnostics and to see if I could capture the code. Now my PCC is infected as well. It's useless, sir. I got it for gradutaing the Academy."

"Come with me Lieutenant." He said, turned, and walked towards his office.

Jet looked at Rayan questioningly. Rayan shrugged her shoulders and motioned with her hands for Jet to follow the Commander. Jet walked quickly to catch up with the Commander's long strides.

Jet stood in front of Commander Fiarand's desk as he sat down, pulled out a file and started fill out some forms.

"Sir?" She questioned, trying to read the name of the forms..

"Lieutenant, I am filling out requisition forms. You're a pilot in need of a ship, so I am requisitioning you a new one. You lost use of personal property due to fulfilling orders so I am also requisitioning you a new Personal Computing Console. Copy?" He informed her.

"Yes, Commander, what are my orders until we get a new fighter?" Jet asked

"I want you to reduce that bird to scrap metal. Anything that was connected to the infected systems must be thrown out then break the bird down to sheet metal..." He told her.

Jet stared at the wall thinking about her fighter and what Randy had said to her. Her eyes widened with realization as the pieces came together in her mind. "Sir," She interrupted. "I was told by Captain Branners that a prisoner had access to my fighter before he was captured."

"Riddick." Jet heard the commander say under his breath. He answered her, "That's correct lieutenant."

"Sir, I'm willing to bet that this prisoner is the one who installed these new codes into my fighter. I know CSG work and these codes are not it."

"So what, lieutenant. That doesn't change the fact that your fighter is inoperable and has to be reduced to scrap metal." He countered, continuing to fill out the requisition forms.

"Sir, if I could talk to him and find out what he did to the systems you wouldn't have to requisition a new fighter." She offered him.

"I'm sorry lieutenant, that's against regulations. I can't allow you to do that." He said hastily.

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"Randy! Randy!" Jet yelled, frantically banging her fist back and forth against Randy's door. "I need you to open up!"

Randy's door opened and he looked at Jet like she had grown a third head. "What's wrong?" He asked concerned that something terrible had happened.

Out of breath from running down the corridor she said, "I need you to get me in to talk to Riddick!"

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Thank everyone for your lovely reviews. You have no idea what they do for me, or maybe you do.

**Amita4Ever:** You're absolutely right about Rayan's attitude of "carpe diem", but you are right there is a difference between quick friends and fast friends! Thanx for your wonderful reviews and your help.

**LisLuv05:** Thank you for your praise on my writing, it's words like those that get a writer through the times when the muses take vacations.

**Ohmigod:** All I can tell you right now is that this will be a sort of pairing. I just can't tell you if it will be a Jet/Randy or a Jet/Riddick, maybe both!

**Wolven Jedi:** Thanx for all of your encouragement, I hope this next chapter measured up.

**JacklynK:** Welcome aboard! It's great to see new reviewers. Keep reviewin' and I'll keep writin'.

**TIMELINE INFO:** For all who want to know, I've placed these events to have taken place before Pitch Black.


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